The president of the Philippines has suddenly emerged as the scourge of the nation's drug dealers. Duterte came into the office as president with the vow, that he would take care of the nation's drug epidemic by a simple method: eliminating every drug dealer in the land. Nobody listened or, if they did, they were not paying much attention. But, as of today, the whole world is on full alert; especially the UNDERworld. In a few short months Duterte and his police force have killed three thousand drug pedlars, many by old-style executions with a bullet to the head, right there on the street.
No trials, no lawyers, no investigations just the Wild West way of taking care of business.
Howls of outrage from the liberal West have left Duterte unmoved. In plainest of terms he has said "You ain't seen nothing yet."
In this old fashioned approach to problem solving he follows on in the footsteps of Chairman Mao who fixed the opium problem in China by locking up twenty million users until they had all gone "Cold Turkey". Closer to hand he had the example of Lee Kuan Yu from Singapore who executed all dealers and drug pushers, cleaned up the island and in twenty years made it an economic powerhouse.
If you are horrified at the brutality of it all, listen to the reasoning behind this purge of the island's underbelly.
He says: "I am prepared to eliminate every drug dealer and pusher in the Philippines if it means saving our younger generation from a life time of enslavement and slow death at the hands of the drug lords. This is a war and I mean to win it."
Now who would argue with that?
Jubilate.
Ian
I felt that I should write a few lines on the passing of my friend Eddie Weber.
Eddie was a legend in his own lifetime down in the Elmira Mennonite country in Ontario.
He would have classed himself as a Mennonite but had broken with the Old Order (those who still drive a horse and buggy instead of a car and who shun electric power on their farms). Yet Eddie still kept his contact with the soil, with his Mennonite friends and with Christian faith.
Eddie farmed in one of the richest tracts of land in Ontario, near Kitchener. His wife was Emma and he had a son and a daughter. My daughter married his grandson Cameron. I suppose farming was not adventurous enough for Eddie for, in mid-life, he branched into demolition, pulling down barns, exploding buildings and stuff like that.
Cameron still recalls Eddie allowing him to hit the plunger at the age of four to blow down an old silo tower. Well into his seventies, Eddy could be seen driving his trucks loaded with precious antique beams and barn boards, sometimes headed to the States to welcoming dealers. At 80 years old Eddie retired from the risky business of handling dynamite and began working at a local feed mill, lifting 100 pound sacks of meal and loading up customers half ton trucks. He didn't need the money but the job kept him in contact with people and it was people Eddie loved. To enhance that contact Eddie would drive the cars of senior citizens ( he never considered himself to be one) down to Florida. They flew, he drove, in order that they could have their vehicles for the winter. Come spring he would drive their cars back to Canada again.
The day came when Eddie decided to call it quits. Instead of his truck he rode round Floradale on his bike. That kept him in contact with his village friends and today he is in contact with thousands more in Heaven. Eddie went to be with the Lord last week and I know exactly what he will be doing. TALKING. If you place your own faith in Christ as Eddie did, you will be meeting him one day and continue this conversation.
Jubilate.
Ian
